


The Princes of Asgard and the Craftsman

by Melethril



Series: AU - Tony Stark, Consultant [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternative Universe - Marvel, BAMF Loki (Marvel), Consultant!Tony Stark, Gen, Good Loki (Marvel), Not Particularly Captain America friendly, Protective Loki (Marvel), Tony Stark Appreciation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-14 02:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12997413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melethril/pseuds/Melethril
Summary: Tony is not sure why Asgard's princes want to meet him. He had hardly spoken to either of them. As he is about to meet them, he remembers his first encounter with Loki.Meanwhile, Thor realizes just how little he knows the craftsman he insists on calling "Friend Stark".





	The Princes of Asgard and the Craftsman

**Author's Note:**

> Another installment of the "Tony Stark: Consultant" series, playing directly after the first two installments.  
> 2-chapter story, of which the first is basically one big flash-back. It will be more Tony-centric in the second.

Tony knew almost everything that happened at SHIELD. He used to know more up until Nick employed a strict ‘if you idiots don’t want Stark to know, don’t file it electronically’ policy.

When it came to the princes of Asgard, Tony knew the exact extent of the containment plans in place in case they ever went off the rails.

 

_Thor Odinson (see ‘Avenger initiative’), Son of Odin (see file) and Frigga (see file), First Prince and Heir to the Throne of Asgard (see ‘Nine Realms’)_ : Do not engage. Evacuate civilians within a 300-mile (482.8 km) radius. Inform the Sorceress Supreme (Ancient One, see file). Activate the Hulk and the rest of the Avengers Initiative to remove Thor Odinson from Earth. Do not banter. Do not insult. Be polite and use diplomacy. Avoid the use of technology based on electricity (see file ‘Thor, God of Thunder’). Do not engage.

_Loki Laufeyson (see file), Son of Laufey (see file) and Farbauti (see file), Ward of Odin (see file) and Frigga (see file), Second Prince of Asgard (see ‘Nine Realms’), Heir to the Throne of Jotunheim (see ‘Nine Realms’), Asgard’s Ambassador in Alfheim (see ‘Nine Realms’) and Vanaheim (see ‘Nine Realms’)_ : Do not engage.

 

Originally, Agent Cohen had written ‘Do not, under any circumstance, mess with Thor’ until Coulson caught it. Tony still wished that they had kept it because he still remembered the first time he had met Thor’s adoptive brother.

The threat had been some ancient foe of Asgard with an unpronounceable name. Thor and the Warrior Three as well as Lady Sif had told all humans including Captain America and the Hulk to stay back. They had engaged the creature/magic-wielder thousands of miles away from the next human settlement, which had been wise because within minutes, the place had looked a nuclear weapons testing site. The Warrior Three and Lady Sif were critically injured, not standing a chance against the ancient magic (alien technology/magic, who the hell knew?) and Thor was in trouble.

* * *

 

_“Asking for permission to engage, sir,” Steve demanded urgently. “Thor needs our help.”_

_“And what exactly are you planning to do, Captain Rogers?” asked Fury viciously. “Throw your shield at the thing? Permission denied. Stark!” Tony, who had been watching the battle through a monitor biting his lips, while simultaneously listening in on the conversation between Nick and Steve, turned his head towards the Avengers and the director of SHIELD._

_“Yes?”_

_“Please tell me that you have some weapon in store to deal with that,” said Fury as he gestured at the screen looking unusually rattled._

_“No.”_

_“Excuse me, Stark?” Fury whispered disbelievingly._

_“No, I don’t. You see the same thing I do, right? Every blow causes it to grow stronger. If we launch, oh let’s say, the Jericho, the thing will be twice the size it is now. It is not of this world, and does not really play within the realms of the known laws of physics. It is made of magic and I don’t know magic as much as I hate to admit that. Thor, according to his own admission, does not know too much about magic either. I am not launching an attack if I cannot calculate what consequences that may have.”_

_“Oh God, Thor was hit!” Everyone in the control room froze; Tony cursed. Looking back at the screen confirmed Agent Simmons’ horrified statement: Thor had taken a heavy blow and was not getting up again._

_“NO!”_

_The scream did not seem human. It echoed from both the transmission and from around them. The perfectly functional screen flickered as the air split and a thin, black-haired man (or male-looking alien-like being) stepped onto the battlefield._

 

* * *

 Later, Tony would meet a composed, dangerously smart, sarcastic son of a married Frost Giant, with a positively vicious humor when it came to pranks, who would gently smile at you while he skinned you both verbally and – if you managed to truly piss him off – physically. But on that day, what he had seen, was Loki when he feared for his brother’s life.

* * *

_One look was enough for the newcomer to become aware of what was happening. What followed was difficult to describe. The man literally_ teleported _to Thor’s side, his right hand on the warrior’s chest with his eyes wide and terrified. As he looked up to face his adversary, there was a dangerous snarl and the screen flashed green for a second before it turned black._

 

Later analysis showed that there had been an EMP blast strong enough to turn off satellites as Loki unleashed his wrath on the creature that had almost killed his brother.

 

_“What happened? I want eyes on these two, now!” bellowed Fury, for once looking as angry as his name implied._

_“JARVIS, help me out,” said Tony calmly as he approached the next computer panel and got lost in the only world that still made sense, the realm of coding. Localizing them was not a problem because, whatever the newcomer had done, it was like an electromagnetic black hole. You only knew it was there because there was_ nothing _there. Having expected that, he used that unique data as a target point for several probes he had developed years ago, though they had been upgraded to not only alternately work on solar and waterpower but also on tiny arc reactors. They had been built with the idea to survive the blast of ten nuclear bombs in order to collect data where no human could ever hope to go._

_“I’ve got a visual, Nick,” Tony announced. (He did not bother with nicknames when it came to the director of SHIELD; being called by his first name already annoyed him to no end.) What they saw was frankly terrifying. The newcomer looked_ tiny _compared to their latest enemy, but it was the creature that was in trouble. The black-haired man opened his arms wide and, as if someone slashed a knife across a painting, the air split open revealing nothing but darkness on the other side. Keeping his left arm to the side, the man/sorcerer pushed his right arm towards the creature in a similar manner as Tony when he activated the gauntlet. As if the right arm had hit the creature’s chest (telekinesis?), it fell through the_ crack in the atmosphere _, which was sealed only a second later. The newcomer lowered his arms and swayed a bit before he fell down on one knee breathing heavily. That moment of weakness was over within an instant, however and the victor, who had to be that brother (Loki? Loptr? Luka?) Thor kept mentioning, was beside the fallen God of Thunder almost instantly, putting his hand on his chest. He had his eyes closed and green mist (?) / energy (?) enveloped his supposed brother’s head and chest._

_Tony did not wait for Fury’s order. It was time to roll. As he turned around, the Iron Man armor assembled around him._

_“Doctor Harper,” he said grimly into SHIELD’s open channel. “I hope your teams are already in the air.”_

_“Yes, Doctor Stark,” came the expected, very calm reply. “ETA, 10 minutes.”_

_“Good, I’ll be with you in five.”_

_As he stepped off the platform and flew away, JARVIS transmitted the discussion in the control room, in which Fury explained to Steve why the Avengers would not be called on scene._

_“Captain Rogers, this is not a SHIELD operation. Paramilitary crack teams and top ambassadors with enough power to level a mid-sized planet don’t mix.”_

_“Sir? I don’t understand.”_

_“This has to be Loki, Thor’s brother, ambassador in two of the most powerful realms apart from Asgard. Given Thor’s strength, I don’t think his little brother is even half a step behind, especially given he just got rid of some enemy that almost killed Thor…”_

_“I apologize for interrupting, sir,” said Steve and Tony rolled his eyes. He never apologized when he interrupted Tony – okay, he did tend to ramble without taking the time to breathe more often than not. “But Thor is our teammate and friend. Lady Sif, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg have been our allies from the beginning. We have to make sure they are okay.”_

_“I am not sure if you are Loki’s allies, though. That is my whole point. Doctor Harper is qualified to handle the situation. I am sure Loki has some sort of respect for healers, given he is currently taking care of his brother.”_

_“Why did you let Stark go, then? That man is unpredictable on a good day…” Tony activated autopilot for a moment so he could close his eyes. That hurt. Okay, they had bickered a bit more viciously than usual this morning after Thor and his friends had left the rest of the Avengers behind, but still, things had been better since their truly catastrophic first meeting._

_“I trust Iron Man to do his job.”_

_Iron Man, yes. Tony Stark, not recommended. Tony briefly wondered if that would ever stop stinging. He_ was _Iron Man... Wasn’t he?_

_“This is not his first assignment with Doctor Harper. They work well together,” Fury continued._

_That was true. He liked Simon. He was a great guy. Speaking of…_

_“Lovely afternoon, fellas. Wonderful weather today, isn’t it? Blue skies and the ground’s green as far as the eye can see except for that black hole we are approaching. Not a literal one, mind you, thank God for small mercies…” said he through the microphone as he waved at the SHIELD pilots who were flying the jet of the medical team (he figured that, if the Avengers could have a jet, so should the medics instead of that old chopper they used to fly with, because lives depended on them arriving ASAP)._

_“Good afternoon, Doctor Stark,” said Simon. “Just in case you haven’t been watching the situation since your departure from headquarters, nothing has changed much. The person who seems to be Prince Thor’s brother has been working on him in silence for… oh, he’s lifting his head.”_

_Tony activated the cameras in question._

_Indeed, Loki was looking up, his expression furious._

“SORCERESS SUPREME!”

_Tony winced at the unexpected volume. Familiar yet eerie golden circles appeared and the Ancient One stepped through… And Tony was as afraid of her as he had been the day he met her._

_“Grandmaster Loki,” said the lady lowering her head in… holy shit, was that respect, even fear in her eyes?_

_“Keep them alive,” the suddenly by far more terrifying sorcerer gritted through his teeth. She nodded, and approached the Warrior Three and Lady Sif._

_“Surely you understand why I could not interfere,” she began as she drew her golden circles and other geometric shapes near the unconscious warriors._

_“Sorceress Supreme,” hissed Loki (and Tony metaphorically patted his shoulder for the quality of his tech, which was good enough to unmistakably transmit a whisper), his eyes still focused on his brother’s chest. “If you believe that you aided Midgard in any way by keeping,” he pronounced the name of the creature, which vaguely resembled the sound people made when they tried to pronounce the stream of letters produced after their cat had walked across the keyboard, “away from pulling this realm apart at the seams, you should know that, what she,” (Oh, that creature was female? Thor did not say.) “Would have done is nothing compared to what I will do if my brother dies due to your neglect. The rest of the order is powerful enough to protect Midgard from the dangers it faces daily. Your aid was not needed. You chose not to help just as you chose not to help when a portal opened with the help of an_ Infinity Stone _and you decided not to lift a finger. Endanger my brother a third time and I will eviscerate you.”_

_Tony swallowed dryly, “Okay.” He cleared his throat. “We will land about a football field away from them. Make sure they see us approach. I’ll go first… When I say ‘run’, you leave.”_

_“Yes, Doctor Stark,” was Simon’s solemn reply._

_They landed as discussed. When the teams were ready, one led by Dr. Simon Harper himself, the other by Dr. Aileen Carter, they began to slowly approach the center of the battlefield. Tony’s suit had confirmed that the area, while burned, showed no increased levels of radiation or toxins, therefore it was safe to approach the wounded warriors without additional protective gear. In an attempt not to seem threatening (and because it probably would not do much anyway), Tony had slipped out of the armor._

_As they approached, they heard Loki cursing at his brother._

_“If you die, I swear I will personally bring you back from Hel only so that I can kill you again.”_

_“Oh, thank the Lord!” exhaled Tony, causing green eyes to look at him sharply._

_“If you are cursing at him, then that means he’ll live, right?” said Tony as friendly and casually as he could manage. “I am Tony Stark and these are Doctors Harper and Carter, whose names, I just realized, almost rhyme, which was not the intention, I assure you. Anyway, they are SHIELD’s finest doctors. Is there anything we can do?”_

_Loki did not say anything, almost eerie green eyes as cold as ice held Tony’s gaze calmly._

_A gasp from Thor had them all look at the fallen warrior._

_“Loki?” the Asgardian whispered._

_“Right beside you, you fool.” Loki’s tone was harsh and cold, but Tony did not miss the gentle way his hand moved through his brother’s hair. The engineer had to look away. He knew that gesture; it was Pepper’s patience and firm, tender confidence mixed with Rhodey’s over-protective mother hen tendencies all merged into one motion of affection._

_“Our foe, is she…?”_

_“Not slain, but… gone for now. She will not bother with us for the next… two thousand years, three thousand if the shadow realm does not become her.” The grin was positively diabolical and Tony knew where the mischief/evil rumors in Norse mythology came from._

_“Why did you not…” Thor began, but started to cough painfully. “Oh, by the Norns…”_

_“Don’t speak, idiot,” Loki’s tone now matched Thor’s timbre in its softness. “It was either kill her and lose you or banish her and still retaining the strength needed to stitch your insides back together. Literally.” His left hand was on his brother’s chest, and fine threads of green-gold magic enveloped the God of Thunder’s torso and head. A sigh escaped Thor’s lips._

_“Better?”_

_“Better,” Thor replied with a relieved sigh, his eyes firmly closed._

_Loki did not look up as he addressed the Midgardians. “There is not much you can do, but could you or your healers keep him some company, Tony Stark? They may clean and bind superficial wounds. I have not been able to work on the small injuries, yet.” Tony nodded, and Aileen immediately checked on her patient with the help of her team._

_As Loki rose to his feet in one elegant movement, and – holy shit, his thin stature really disguised just how tall the guy was – he moved towards the Warrior Three, thanking the Ancient One coolly while also dismissing her within the same sentence._

_“Anytime,_ Grandmaster _.”_

_This was the first time that Tony had ever heard something like petty annoyance clouding her usually composed appearance. Apparently, the tone did not go unnoticed because Loki smiled dangerously._

_“You do know what they say about high horses, my dear Sorceress Supreme,” said Loki as he put his hand on Volstagg’s chest._

_“I am sure you know more about horses than I do, Grandmaster Loki.”_

_Tony quickly stepped in front of the others, and was about to call his armor, just in case the God of Mischief would take offense in the Svadilfari reference. To his surprise, Loki started giggling; it was an unexpectedly cheerful and innocent sound._

_“People are still hung-up on that story, after so many years? Oh not-so-Ancient One, you who scoff at the Dark Dimension while you practically reek with it, should know better than to believe in tales told by those consumed with jealousy. Go back to your temple of worshippers and faithful followers. You who claim not to keep any secrets while you drown in them.” He laughed again, and it was not a particularly nice sound. “Go. Thank you for preserving my friends’ lives, even if it was only meant to preserve yours.”_

_The Ancient One swallowed dryly but kept her composure as she drew her golden portal and stepped through it without another word._

_“Not a friend of yours, I gather,” said Tony as casually as he could muster._

_“Oh, I like her just fine. It is the hypocrisy that I cannot stand. I may be called Loki Liesmith, but I….”_

_“No,” coughed Volstagg, his eyes barely open. “You are Loki, Son of Asgard and Jotunheim, preventer of wars and most trusted advisor of Thor. The most naturally gifted among the magic-wielders of the Nine Realms, master of the flying knives with a mean left swing on top of that. More importantly, you are my friend, and you have saved all of our lives once again. Thank you,”_

_That little speech seemed to stun Loki. His hand had stilled and he stared at the warrior in front of him. The hesitation was only there for a moment, though._

_“If you think that will change the fact that you will not be able to eat anything for the next twenty-four hours, you are mistaken, old friend,” whispered Thor’s brother. He leaned forward and kissed the man’s forehead. Volstagg’s eyes closed promptly as if put out by a spell (which was a likely scenario)._

_“Bind his chest; his ribs are broken.” Loki ordered Nurse Taylor, who had patiently waited for her cue to help. One by one, Loki healed the Warrior Three and Lady Sif. Tony quickly observed whom Loki counted as his friends (Volstagg followed by Fandral followed by Hogun) and whom he counted as a friend through association rather than true affection (Lady Sif). More than that, it was clear whose life he cherished the most. Tony did not want to imagine what Loki would have done if Thor had died, but he knew for sure that Earth would have come out on the short end._

 

* * *

 

In the end, however, Loki had saved the day, and he had remained on Midgard until his brother and his friends had fully recovered. He returned several times after that, and in the absence of deathly peril, Loki was more than equipped of going up against Tony’s verbal onslaughts as he returned quips in equal measure.

Tony liked Thor’s brother (and was slightly terrified of him), but outside of good-natured snark that bordered on the brink of civility, they hardly ever interacted, just like he hardly ever spoke to Thor unless it was about Avengers business. Neither had ever stepped a foot into Tony’s life outside of SHIELD headquarters. As such, it had been a surprise to hear from JARVIS that they requested a meeting, and – even after setting a time and date – even more of a surprise to find both Loki and Thor in Stark Tower.

“What can I do for you, my favorite princes?” asked Tony, as he poured them a drink.

**Author's Note:**

> In case you wonder about the powerful!Loki trope, there are two reasons:
> 
> 1\. This Loki has coveted his magical abilities since childhood, promoted by his birth parents and by his foster parents. It is one of the reasons why he is THE ambassador of Asgard in Alfheim and Vanaheim where magic (in this universe) is respected. The Asgardians have learned to respect him for it, mainly because Thor respects him for it.
> 
> 2\. After the Thor: Ragnarok, I just had this urge to write a BAMF!Loki story... More importantly, I want intelligent!Loki, but for now we settle for a complete BAMF :)


End file.
